A MAN who was caught “trespassing” in the ground of Buckingham Palace told household staff “I want to see the Queen.”
Connor Attridge, 28, is accused of walking through the gate of the Royal Mews just days before the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
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Westminster Magistrates Court heard that the gate was opened to allow through an authorised car, before he followed it through.
He managed to breach the palace boundary by three to five meters after refusing to stop when he was challenged by a member of staff.
Attridge, who has a facial tattoo reading “truly blessed”, said: “I want to come in. I want to see the Queen.”
He was quickly ushered out of the grounds and arrested on Sunday night, before appearing in the dock today charged with trespassing on a protected site.
The arrest comes amid heightened security around the palace in the run-up to the extended bank holiday to celebrate the Queen’s 70-year reign.
On June 2, Trooping the Colour, the sovereign’s official birthday parade, will kick-start the four days of festivities, with the expectation the Queen will join working members of the royal family on the Buckingham Palace balcony.
Prosecutor Leila Nahaboo-Osman said: “This is one of the most high-profile weeks in history, with it being the 70th anniversary.”
She said the area where the defendant allegedly trespassed is “one of the most heavily guarded places in London”.
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Daniel Mullin, defending, said his client suffers from mental health issues, did not use “stealth” and had “no motive or desire to go further than he did”.
He added: “This was at worst reckless and at best bordering on an accidental offence.”
District Judge Nina Tempia adjourned the case to June 28 for the Crown Prosecution Service to obtain consent from Attorney General Suella Braverman, which is required in cases involving trespass on a protected site.
She granted Attridge, from Eastbourne, East Sussex, bail with conditions, including a curfew monitored by electronic tag and exclusion from London, except to attend court.
The alleged incident is the latest involving the Royal Mews – which houses the royal family’s horses.
Earlier this year, American tourist Joseph Huang Kang, 24, was fined £200 after jumping over the fence into the Mews on the afternoon of December 10 last year in the midst of a psychotic episode.
Cameron Kalani, 44, scaled the fence in the early hours of May 10 last year and was caught with an 8in (20cm) kitchen knife and cocaine in his bag when he was arrested after climbing back into Buckingham Palace Road.
He was handed a 24-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, after pleading guilty to trespassing on a protected site, possession of a bladed article and possession of a wrap of cocaine.
Kalani said he had travelled to London from his home in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, while in a state of psychosis in a bid “to be arrested”.
